Catalog
50 Cents
| Issuer | Treasury of Liberia |
|---|---|
| Year | 1858-1866 |
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| Currency | Dollar (1833-1906) |
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| Obverse description | At upper centre, a vignette of a sailing ship at sea beside a palm tree, framed by ornate scroll lettering reading REPUBLIC OF LIBERIA in an arched legend. Vertical lathe-work panels bearing the denomination 50 CENTS flank both left and right margins. The body of the note carries the promise-to-pay text in a combination of bold letterpress and italic script, with the place of issue Monrovia and a partial date in the 1860s; signature lines at the lower margin are designated Secretary of the Treasury and President. |
|---|---|
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| Reverse description | The reverse is entirely unprinted, presenting a plain, unadorned paper surface with no design elements, text, or ornamentation. |
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| Comments |
Liberia's Treasury notes of this period occupy an awkward corner of West African monetary history. The republic had been issuing its own currency since the 1840s, but chronic shortages of coin meant these fractional Treasury notes — fifty cents among them — carried genuine transactional weight in Monrovia's markets, not merely symbolic value.
Pick 6 is among the rarest of the early Liberian issues. The eight-year date span reflects reuse of the same printed stock across multiple authorization cycles rather than continuous fresh printings, and surviving examples are scarce enough that auction appearances draw significant specialist attention.